Source: Drew Middleton, These are the British (New York: Knopf, 1957), pp. 244-245 Text: Television is the greatest new influence on the British masses since the education acts of the last century produced a proletariat capable of reading the popular … Continue reading →

Source: Egerton R. Williams, Plain-towns of Italy: The Cities of Old Venetia (London: J. Murray, 1912), pp. 142-143 Text: After a dinner in company with various gentlemen who ate with their hats on (according to the peasant’s manner), consumed alarming … Continue reading →

Source: Harry A. Franck, Working North from Patagonia; being the narrative of a journey, earned on the way, through southern and eastern South America (New York: The Century Co., 1921), pp. 261-266 Text: The “Companhia Brazileira” advertized extensively, and the … Continue reading →

Source: [Filson Young], ‘Kinema’, The Living Age, vol. 272 (1912), pp. 565-567 (originally published in The Saturday Review, 27 January 1912, pp. 108-109) Text: This is one of the words there is no escaping from. Distorted, misspelled, mispronounced, debased by … Continue reading →

Source: Hugo Münsterberg, The Photoplay: A Psychological Study (New York/London: D. Appleton and Company, 1916), pp. 215-220 Text: Enthusiasts claim that in the United States ten million people daily are attending picture houses. Sceptics believe that “only” two or three … Continue reading →